INSPECTION REPORT OF THE TOWN OF TANNA.

No. A/503

TO

THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT,

GENERAL DEPARTMENT.
Office of the Sanitary Commissioner for the Government of
Bombay, 3rd June 1875.

     SIR,

     I have the honour to report, for the information of Government, that on the
28th May I went to Tanna, as I had heard that cholera had broken out in the
town.

      2. I made my official inspection of it in company with Dr. Hojel, the Acting
Civil Surgeon, who pointed out to me the houses in which cholera cases had taken
place, and showed me the measures he had adopted to stamp out the disease.
We were also accompanied by Colonel Coles, the District Superintendent of
Police, and by Dr. Cody, the Superintendent of Vaccination and Health Officer of
the Western Circle; and, as we were going round, Mr. Robertson, the Collector,
joined the party, and accompanied us in our inspection.

      3. Dr. Hojel promised to give me a short account of the circumstances
connected with the outbreak, and has written a report, which is so clear and
concise that I do myself the honour to forward it to you. From it, it will be
seen that, although there had been a fatal case of cholera which had been im-
ported from Násik on the 13th April, yet no fresh case had occurred until the
15th May, when a boy was brought by rail from Tullegaon, a village near Poona,
where cholera was then said to be prevalent.

      4. This boy was taken to house No. 32, situated in one of the main thorough-
fares in the town. It is a two-storeyed house, used as a chawl, and divided on
each floor by a passage running down its length, on each side of which are dark,
ill-ventilated compartments used as dwelling-rooms, the walls of which are com-
posed of plastered bamboo tatties. There were at the time living in it 60 or 70
persons, who drank the water of a foul surface well situated in the corner of the
building. The boy was promptly seen by Dr. Hojel, and, although on arrival he
was in an advanced stage of cholera, he recovered. Instant measures were taken
to prevent the disease spreading, by burning the soiled clothes of the patient, by
disinfecting his excreta, by the fumigation and lime-washing of the walls and
rooms, &c.

      5. Dr. Hojel's exertions were not confined to this particular house. At
his suggestion the Collector was good enough to warn station-masters along the
line to prevent persons suffering from cholera from entering the trains, and in
order to protect the town a shed was erected near the railway station for the
accommodation of any sick who had escaped previous detection.